"The Wind and the Waves are Always on the side of the Ablest Navigators." – Edward Gibbon

Google Developing Nanotechnology To Detect Cancer, Heart Disease

Google Inc. revealed Tuesday at a conference in California that it is creating a wearable device and a pill with nanoparticles to detect certain developing diseases in the body, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Andrew Conrad, Google‘s head of the Life Sciences team at the Google X research lab, revealed that the company’s goal is to provide an early warning system for cancer and other diseases with a more efficient detection rate.

“Every test you ever go to the doctor for will be done through this system,” Conrad said. “That is our dream.”

Google X is designing tiny magnetic particles that seek out and attach to cells, proteins or other molecules inside the body. A wearable sensor with a magnet will attract the particles, along with the attached cells, and monitor the signs of medical trouble in the user’s bloodstream.

Google is developing a disease-detecting wristband sensor that can monitor your body for early signs of illnesses, such as cancer. (Photo : Getty Images)

Experts said that the research is still on its early stages, according to the Daily Mail.

Researchers at Google X have yet to identify how the nanoparticles would bind itself to infected cells. Google said that its research team doesn’t know how much nanoparticles are needed for the system to work.

“Nanoparticles… give you the ability to explore the body at a molecular and cellular level,” Conrad explained. “Then [you can] recall those nanoparticles to a single location and that location is the superficial vasculature of the wrist, [where] you can ask them what they saw,” Conrad continued.

“In principle this is great. Any newcomers with new ideas are welcome in the field,” professor Paul Workman, chief executive of the Institute of Cancer Research in London, told BBC. “How much of this proposal is dream versus reality is impossible to tell because it is a fascinating concept that now needs to be converted to practice.”

A hundred Google employees, with expertise in molecular imaging, structural biology of neurodegenerative disease, astrophysics, chemistry and electrical engineering among others, have taken part in the nanoparticle project, TechCrunch has learned.

“We’re trying to stave off death by preventing disease. Our foe is unnecessary death,” said Conrad.